Hawaii Catholic Herald

Newspaper of the Diocese of Honolulu

Father John Catoir: On conscience and the reception of Communion

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Conscience is the faculty of human reason that makes practical judgments regarding what is morally right or wrong. In the search for truth, a person should always turn to a respected authority for enlightenment. Catholics are encouraged to turn to the teaching authority of the church, namely to what’s referred to as the magisterium. But […]

Kathleen T. Choi: The broken bell

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Take any large group of people and test their intelligence. About 10 percent will score poorly. About 10 percent will do astonishingly well. The rest of us will cluster in the middle. Make a graph of the results, and you’ll see a drawing that looks like a bell.

Tony Magliano: Christian genocide is happening

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MAKING A DIFFERENCE For many of us who strive to seriously practice faith in Jesus Christ, and to extend that practice out into the marketplace, the political square and society at large, persecution rarely means more than being ridiculed, verbally harassed, and to a certain degree socially and politically marginalized. But for so many other […]

Father Kenneth Doyle: If a priest is present, shouldn’t he distribute Communion?

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Q: During Lent, more people than usual attend daily Mass in our parish. We have two assigned priests. For some reason, when the pastor celebrates Mass, the associate doesn’t concelebrate but sits in a pew with the congregation. Then, when it is time for holy Communion, a lay minister helps the pastor distribute, and the associate walks up in the regular Communion line.

Sister Agatha Perreira, Sisters of St. Francis of the Neumann Communities: Whatever God wants

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I was a junior in high school and sick at home when I told my mom that I would like to see her and daddy. I knew my dad would come home for lunch. My mom had no idea what I wanted to talk about. I was the outgoing type who, usually after completing my chores in the morning, washing or ironing clothes, would go outside to climb trees and eat fruits, or swim behind Rainbow Falls. I said, “Now that I am almost graduating, I want to become a religious sister.”

Father Kenneth Doyle: Should we be holding hands during the Our Father?

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Q: I recently joined a small parish where the entire congregation holds hands together at the Our Father. I feel uncomfortable holding hands with people I don’t know; so instead, I put my hands in a prayer position as a signal to others not to grab for my hands. There is no other parish close by, and I don’t know how to handle this. (Charleston, West Virginia)

Talk Story | Office for Social Ministry: Lenten stories of hope

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“It is a good thing that the Crucifixion and Death of Jesus are not to be judged by human standards. When we think of the hardships so many in our world face, we might easily grow discouraged; but our God offers us hope, and wants all of us to work together to build a world of peace and justice.” (CRS Project Rice Bowl 2016)

Msgr. Owen F. Campion: Overcoming death, the Lord lives

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The church celebrates the Easter Vigil late in the evening on Holy Saturday. These readings are those read during Masses on Easter Sunday itself.

For its first reading on this extraordinary feast of Christian faith, the church presents us with a passage from the Acts of the Apostles. Acts is in effect a continuation of St. Luke’s Gospel. Scholars say that this Gospel and Acts were the work of the same author. Beginning with the Ascension, Acts reports what life was like for the infant community of Christians in Jerusalem, and then it recalls the initial spread of Christianity.